Fans of the Boston Red Sox baseball team were surprised to learn in May 2018 that David Price, the team’s superstar pitcher, would miss his scheduled start after being diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful and sometimes disabling condition caused by the squeezing of the nerves leading from the hand to the arm. As Price was known to be a video-game aficionado, the news sparked rumours on social media that his ailment was caused not by too much pitching but rather too much time playing Fortnite.
Price returned to the mound. But the episode raised questions about eSports injuries. Had he been unable to pitch, he could still have collected the remainder of his seven-year, $217m contract because he is a member of the powerful Major League Baseball Players’ Association.
But such protections are not afforded to the tens of thousands of eSports players, (including those who play Fortnite professionally). Many have already been forced into early retirement due to career-ending injuries from gaming – most notably, Hai ‘Hai’ Lam, a 25-year old pro known for his domination of the North American League of Legends championship series, who stepped back due to a strain-related wrist injury.
While retirements, like Hai’s, receive much of the press, there are many situations where players are forced to take extended absences from gaming due to injuries of their hands, wrists, necks and even lungs. Those absences come with little financial and medical support, but this will change in 2019 as players push to be represented by a union.
Many eSports players are highly skilled. They demonstrate exquisite hand-eye co-ordination and mental stamina. And their games attract more than 225 million viewers around the world, generating large amounts of money. According to Forbes, eSports revenues are expected to top $1 billion in 2019.
eSports athletes are primarily compensated as freelance contractors via cash prizes for winning tournaments, although some of the more accomplished players do receive small salaries to cover day-to-day expenses. The relationships between players, teams and content providers – such as Blizzard Entertainment, the US-based video-game developer – are still maturing.
Although the distribution of revenues is not reported in a transparent fashion for this still-adolescent sector, a rough-order calculation using data from sources such as ESC, which monitors the sector, indicates that the as a group, players currently receive less than 15 per cent of the revenue pot. This lack of transparency as to how revenue is shared might have been acceptable when video games were purely a leisure activity, but as the industry grows, players will demand more. (Compare this the Premier League’s UK broadcast revenue – £5.13bn was paid to the league by Sky and BT for the 2016-19 UK broadcast rights, and 50 per cent of this is shared between clubs, contributing hugely to player wages.)
In response, in 2019 eSports players will begin to unionise. Players will seek to use collective bargaining to protect their earnings in the event of injury, to win healthcare or retirement benefits and to negotiate revenue-sharing agreements. Challenges exist, especially when considering how to build a framework that works across borders given the global nature of gaming. But already certain stakeholders within the industry are exploring how to make a union a reality. Riot Games, which runs multiplayer tournaments, launched a players’ association in 2018.
We are learning more and more about the types of physical and mental stresses gaming places on players, such as repetitive strain injuries, and and are starting to understand that eSports players are workers who deserve protection. In 2019, they will finally get the union they deserve.
William Welser is a Partner at ReD Associates, a global strategy consulting company using social sciences and technology to solve complex business challenges.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
